Business Highlights
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US stocks take small losses as energy companies slide
NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. stocks took small losses Friday to end a quiet week of trading. Energy companies fell as a rally in oil prices faded and investors continue to sell the safe assets they favored earlier this year. Technology and materials companies made small gains.
While U.S. oil prices rose for the seventh day in a row, investors don't appear to expect further gains and they sold energy company shares. Bond prices fell and yields climbed.
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Hiring was healthy in past year in many US swing states
WASHINGTON (AP) - Hiring has been strong in the past year in many presidential campaign swing states, a possible hurdle for GOP candidate Donald Trump, who has sought to capitalize on economic distress.
Employers have added jobs in the past 12 months at a faster pace than the national average in Colorado, Florida, Michigan and North Carolina, the Labor Department said Friday. Job gains have been solid but slightly below the national rate in other battleground states, such as Ohio and Virginia.
Hiring was healthy nationwide in July, with employers adding 255,000 jobs, the most in eight months. The U.S. unemployment rate is 4.9 percent.
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Amtrak taps former freight railroad head to be new CEO
WASHINGTON (AP) - Amtrak has named Charles "Wick" Moorman, the former head of the Norfolk Southern freight railroad, to be president and CEO of Amtrak, the nation's passenger railroad.
Moorman, a native of Hattiesburg, Mississippi, was president and CEO of Norfolk Southern Railway from 2004 to 2013. He succeeds Joseph Boardman, a former head of the Federal Railroad Administration, who has led Amtrak since 2008. Boardman announced his intention to retire last fall.
Amtrak carries operates more than 300 trains daily and carries more than 30 million passengers a year.
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Twitter unveils features to filter tweets, notifications
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Twitter has announced two new settings that will allow users to control what they see in their feeds and what notifications they receive.
Twitter says it has modified its notification settings to include the ability to see only notifications from people they follow. It's also introducing what it calls a "quality filter" that it says can improve the quality of tweets users see and filter out duplicate tweets or content that appears to be automated.
The announcement comes a month after "Saturday Night Live" and "Ghostbusters" star Leslie Jones publicly called on Twitter to do more to curb harassment on the platform.
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Ohio Turnpike may soon see self-driving testing
TOLEDO, Ohio (AP) - Ohio's toll road, a heavily traveled connector between the East Coast and Chicago, is moving closer to allowing the testing of self-driving vehicles.
Testing is likely to begin within 12 months, and possibly before the end of the year, the Ohio Turnpike's executive director told The Associated Press. Officials overseeing the roadway have spent more than a year looking at the possibilities.
Ohio is among several states competing to play a role in the testing and research of autonomous vehicles, which is advancing at light speed.
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NBA chooses New Orleans for 2017 All-Star Game
NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The NBA has decided to hold the 2017 All-Star Game in New Orleans after taking the midseason event out of North Carolina because of a state law that limits anti-discrimination protections for lesbian, gay and transgender people.
Unlike several other Southern states, Louisiana has not been swept up in legislative efforts to pass laws similar to that in North Carolina - a fact Gov. John Bel Edwards has touted while lobbying the NBA to bring its All-Star weekend to New Orleans.
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Morgan Stanley accused of mismanaging its 401(k) plan
NEW YORK (AP) - A participant in Morgan Stanley's 401(k) plan filed a lawsuit Friday in U.S. District Court in New York alleging that it offers investment options that have too-high fees and poor track records, including some mutual funds run by Morgan Stanley itself. The suit accuses the $8 billion plan of causing "hundreds of millions of dollars" in losses for its roughly 60,000 participants.
Morgan Stanley declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Friday's suit is the latest in a lengthening string of complaints about high fees and poor investment choices at 401(k) and 403(b) retirement plans around the country.
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Pennsylvania supermarket sells wine, a 1st since Prohibition
PITTSBURGH (AP) - Officials say a grocery store in Pennsylvania has become the first supermarket since Prohibition to sell wine in the state.
Previously, only state-owned liquor stores or kiosks had been allowed to sell wine. Under a new law, customers can buy up to 3 liters of wine to go from businesses that hold restaurant or hotel liquor licenses.
The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board says it has approved more than 80 supermarkets, restaurants and hotels to sell wine to go. A Giant Eagle store in suburban Pittsburgh began the first to start selling wine Friday.
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Charges: Producer hit sour note with fake play on opera star
NEW YORK (AP) - A Broadway producer has been charged with scamming seven people by getting them to invest $165,000 in a nonexistent play about opera star Kathleen Battle supposedly starring Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o.
Roland Scahill pleaded not guilty on Friday to charges of criminal possession of stolen property, grand larceny and scheming to defraud.
Prosecutors said Scahill falsely claimed he had secured the rights to Battle's life story and had signed a contract with Nyong'o to star in the play. Scahill also claimed that the Booth Theatre had been reserved for the play's Broadway run and that Netflix had agreed to film a performance, according to an indictment.
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The Dow Jones industrial average fell 45.13 points, or 0.2 percent, to 18,552.57. The S&P 500 index fell 3.15 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,183.87. The Nasdaq composite lost 1.77 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to close at 5,238.38.
U.S. crude rose 30 cents to $48.52 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, lost 1 cent to $50.88 a barrel in London. In other energy trading, wholesale gasoline rose 2 cents to $1.51 a gallon. Heating oil rose 4 cents to $1.53 a gallon. Natural gas fell 9 cents to $2.58 per 1,000 cubic feet.